Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 3.3: Helpful rewards for low-level dungeon runs
by Michael Sacco 
Nov 15th 2009 at 2:00PM
The Satchel of Helpful Goods is a level-scaling bag o' rewards, which EU Community Manager Wryxian says will contain one piece each from two sets of loot rewards. Quoth the crocolisk:
...these satchels are rewards from doing a random dungeon through the LFG tool at lower levels. There's two groups of items that can be inside them. One includes bracers, rings, necklaces and cloaks. The other has belts, boots, gloves and shoulder items. What you'll find in the satchel is one item from each group, and this is also further influenced by a ten level range. So for example, what is in a satchel received for completing a dungeon between levels 20 and 30 might be a nice necklace and some gloves, but from a dungeon between 50 and 60 you might get a ring and some new boots.
The level ranges he refers to are 5-15, 15-25, 24-34, 35-45, 46-55, 56-60, 60-64, and 65-70. Wryxian indicates that the two item groups are set up so as not to trivialize quest rewards from the zones in your level range, and to make sure that you're always receiving a variety of gear. It's unknown at this time whether these'll be blues we've seen before, a la Elven Spirit Claws, or whether they're newly-created blues with the express purpose of being Satchel rewards. Still, pretty cool. Oh, and you get money too.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Nazgûl Nov 15th 2009 4:49PM
Satchel of HELPFUL Goods:
My guess is that they WILL be helpful. But who knows.
Valt Nov 15th 2009 6:05PM
If they are random as blues suggest my guess is that armor class might be same but they _might_ be very much like
"Helpful plate of the wolf
Waist Plate
157 armor
+15 Spirit
+16 Agility"
wich I hope is not the case. I mean come on.. thats just.. step back in the itemization and we've gone so far to almost perfect it to fit classes and all ;P
fearthefireblade Nov 15th 2009 6:07PM
NO every reward will be mail gloves of the whale! Major schadenfreude by Blizzard!
Eternauta Nov 15th 2009 6:14PM
Blizz has already said that they've learned from that mistake. In fact, when cataclysm goes live you can say goodbye to all the stupid "+strenght/+spirit" stuff for good!
So I think they'll only keep "useful" combinations like "strenght/stamina", "intellect/spirit", etc...
jorge_av Nov 16th 2009 12:51AM
I can see it now, I get the satchel on my lvl 20 mage: a pair of mail boots and a cloak with agility...
Skweak Nov 15th 2009 5:04PM
Just in time.
I was beginning to get really frustrated on my priest. I have all the heirlooms I can and instead of finding that I'm levelling faster than the quests, I'm finding the exact opposite. Despite almost exclusively questing with rested XP (for, what, 220% the normal XP), I'm finding the quests are getting red before I level. I'm currently lvl 34 and parked in Hammerfall with every quest in Arathi and Alterac red. I scratched my head for a while and realized that this was the fault of mounts. Before, running through an area to get a quest, there would be any number of incidental mobs I'd have to kill. Now, I just run past, get the quest, and run out. All told it seems to be less XP. (Much less time, but frustrating because of this unintended consequence.) These dungeons will give me an alternate way to lvl. (And to get chanting mats. :) )
ryang Nov 16th 2009 1:17AM
You're doing it wrong...
You didn't mention what level you are, but I recently took my 18 shaman to the current 67 in a couple of weeks, and I never had an issue with the area having "red" quests. You need to pick the right area to quest in.
I managed to *completely* skip STV by having a mate XP grind me through SM a couple of times. DIdn't touch TM, Arathi, countless other locations. In all honesty, I'm amazed at how quickly I was in outlands..
Microtonal Nov 15th 2009 4:56PM
I'm really hoping that the items will either be all BoE, or all appropriate to the class you actually do the dungeon with. I'd be a bit disgruntled if my rogue's bag was full of BoP int/spirit cloth pieces.
Zerzuhl Nov 15th 2009 4:59PM
Sounds nice. But a lot of those low level instances are huge. Think Mauradon and Dire Maul. That's a lot to go through and a lot of time to dedicate.
Hoggersbud Nov 16th 2009 12:23PM
Mauradon's easy. Take out some of the trash, let people mount up.
Problem solved.
Gimmlette Nov 15th 2009 5:02PM
Ooooh. I might, and the operative word is "might", actually hop on my alts and Pug, even though I never Pug, just to see the contents of a bag.
Talk about a carrot...
Amaxe Nov 15th 2009 5:03PM
Looks like this will help lower levels find groups for instances anyway
Thander Nov 15th 2009 5:55PM
I hope they will also let you queue up for more dungeons. During my leveling there were some dungeons I wanted to do but never found groups when I was at the appropriate level. Once I was level 60, the LFG tool would not let me sign up for those dungeons. At the same time I was not strong enough to solo them, so I only ever got to see them by soloing them at high level. I think increasing the level range to your level - 20 would be nice. A lot of classes still can't solo Outland dungeons. It would be nice to be able to queue up for those.
Gemini Nov 15th 2009 8:39PM
Unfortunately, you can only queue for dungeons in your level range.
shadowhowl1900 Nov 15th 2009 7:31PM
why not just get an item that u turn in to your trainer to gain additional xp?
Hyacinthe Nov 16th 2009 2:32AM
There's a level 5-15 bracket? Are they making entirely new instances, or is there some level 5 instance I've never heard of? I don't think you can even do Ragefire Chasm at that level.
LilBanshee Dec 3rd 2009 2:20PM
You can enter ragefire chasm as early as level 8. You can enter wailing caverns and deadmines as early as level 10.
You can get your first ragefire chasm quests as early as level 9, and by 10 you can get all of the quests. The first wailing caverns quest becomes accessible at level 10, although you wont get all the quests until level 15. You can get the first deadmines quests at 14, and need to be level 15 to get them all.
I wouldn't recommend going into either of those dungeons for about 4 levels after the quests become available. I wouldn't be shocked to hear a group of level 14-15 characters cleared ragefire chasm. I also wouldn't be surprised if a level 15 healer could squeeze into a group for deadmines and earn his place. Or, of course, people can be run through by much higher-level characters, but where's the fun in that?
Paul Nov 16th 2009 10:55AM
This is awesome. I'd never thought of using the random instance tool at lower levels but it makes perfect sense. This should mean players never reach 80 without some instance experience of their class. That has to be a good thing.
Carbon Nov 16th 2009 2:22PM
I like this idea. It can fill holes in itemization without a lot of man hours for neither the developers nor the players. Wait, was that a double negative? Well you get the point.
Just the million dollar question; will these helpful rewards be "well, hey, this plate kinda works for me...I mean, it has more stamina AND more spirit..." or "Sweet!"
Anyways, as it stands now, and loot is good loot. This may make leveling a little bit more entertaining.
Blackhorn Nov 16th 2009 12:04PM
I'm loving the idea.
I'm still scared though :O
Being able to easily hop into an instance with a group of pugs is still potentially the worst idea imaginable regardless of how easily the group was put together.
I stopped leveling my warlock and priest because the groups I got in Northrend were the worst I'd ever had. You can't call running through The Nexus a fast way to level when it takes over two hours to get through it. And there's a very good chance you'll wind up with the same bad PuGs over and over again. Yes, there will be a larger pool of players to sample from, but there's not going to be hundreds of people out there queuing for your range of instances. And the second you finish, you pop back into the queue with everyone else you just ran with. You don't even have the option of avoiding a bad tank or horrible healers, or pitiful DPS.